my whole life in one garbage metaphor

Kamala Khan. 21. "I'm here to take out the trash."

[marvelouskamala]

thcmystique:

Raven hated morphing into animals. Even years later, it still gave her the taste of copper in her mouth, and made her head feel like it was going to explode. The closer they were to her normal size the better, but even becoming a deer was hard work, and threatened to have her heart rip out of her chest. She could hardly be blamed for shifting into her normal form the second she reached the outer periphery of the gates, but of course, just as she managed to shift into her human-passing form (easier to explain than her blue skin, should she be caught, which was laughable) she heard a voice behind her.

“No,” Raven said simply, giving the young girl only a passing glance. “I’m not being intimidated by the Stretchy Avenger, thank you very much. Run home, I’ll call your mom if I feel like I need someone to tell me off.”

She paused, though, when the girl didn’t make any movement to leave. With a sigh, Raven rolled her eyes. “This company is linked to mutant teenagers going missing from Brooklyn,” Raven explained. “So you can help me, or you can cuff me, but what you were planning to do here was just as illegal as what I am, if I’m guessing correctly.”

Kamala had never been more insulted in her life. “Hey! My name is Ms. Marvel!” She protested, feeling fifteen years old all over again. “I don’t just stretch, by the way. I shapeshift, and I grow! Come on, size off! Fastest one to twenty feet wins.” This would best fit in her bad idea folder, she decided. Challenging a probably villainous stranger to a size off. “And also, not an Avenger yet. Avengers...adjacent, for your information.”

After Kamala got all her bluster out, she gave herself enough time to process everything. Missing teenagers definitely outweighed her bruised ego. “I’ll help you, with conditions,” Kamala insisted. “We can’t kill anybody, and...nobody reports the other one for trespassing.”

[marvelouskamala]

abugsuit:

“It’s kinda weird, but happiness? I was bored and flying a couple laps around the Hudson last night and all of a sudden I could just feel that it was…enjoying itself?” It freaked Jaime out, but he figured it was better for Khaji Da to be happy than not. “I asked it about it, but it didn’t give me much info.”

He paused, trying to think of anything the Scarab liked. “Patrol and trees. That’s all I’ve gotten out of it.” He laughed at the idea. “You’re always welcome at the apartment for a marathon. If you’re not too busy kicking ass, that is. I’ve been hearing Ms. Marvel’s been working hard recently.”

"Aww!” Jaime couldn’t expect anything but that from anybody, Kamala told herself. It was kinda cute. A hostile alien species getting along with the human...host. It was straight out of a movie. Heartwarming, almost. “Next thing you know, it’s gonna get moody.” Like a toddler or a teenager, Kamala mused.

She brightened. “Thanks, Jaime.” It was nice to know another confidante in the business. Her parents were her parents, not friends. Bruno was busy, Nakia wasn’t in the know, and everyone else was a little too out of reach lately. “Yeah! I’ve been investigating this...thing, back home. Shifty stuff. I’ll fill you in when I know more.” Her work into Hope Yards needed some more research before she let anyone else tag along. Jaime would make great backup, she knew. “Turns out, nobody likes when a superhero snoops around on private property. Weird, huh?”

[marvelouskamala]

ofelements:

“Is it? I always thought this was my neighbourhood,” Crystal replied. She snickered as Kamala threw a rock and then pulled water from the Hudson, spraying all over the remaining man. He began coughing, and she easily knocked them out with a quick hit. “No problem,” she replied. It had been an easy battle, nothing like what she trained for. “How have you been?” As she spoke, she shifted to face Kamala, the men forgotten.

It actually was Crystal’s neighborhood. So much for Kamala’s dazzling wit and effortless charm. All she did was remind an ex where she lived!

Crystal’s powers were pretty cool. Kamala watched the melee avidly.

“Same old, same old,” she offered. Get up, get dressed, go to school, hit the streets. Being Ms. Marvel was never boring, which Kamala appreciated, but it wasn’t really the kind of thing you could discuss with other people. Fortunately, Crystal was in the community. “Keeping an eye out for bad guys. Trying to learn stuff about my...Inhumanity,” she joked, checking to see that all the guys were out like lights, though there was no need after all—Crystal knew exactly what she was doing. “I wonder if they’ll ever put that on a ballot.” Name, address, species? It could happen. “How are you?”

[marvelouskamala]

spidcrgwens:

The prompting took Gwen a little off guard, and she faltered a bit. Talking about her love life wasn’t something she’d ever been good at. In high school, she’d been blind to both Peter and Harry’s respective crushes on her, and it had taken her ages to realize that Peter’s feelings were ones she returned. She’d gotten a little better at recognizing her own feelings at least – she could definitely tell that she had a sizable crush on Miles – but other people’s were still a mystery to her. Shrugging a shoulder, she shook her head. “Nah, I’m not dating anyone,” she replied. “You’d know if I was, of course! And if they sucked, we could take ‘em out together.” She made web-slinging motions with a grin. “How about you? Anybody interesting?”

That just about summed up Kamala’s love life. Just like Gwen, she wasn’t dating anybody right now. “Keep me posted,” she suggested, peering over at what Gwen planned to buy. It was a good pile so far, but they were just getting started. “I haven’t had a good team up in a long time.” Actual crime fighting and a mission. Not a date, she thought, hoping Gwen got that muddled message.

“Nobody,” she answered, a little disappointed. “Abu wants to set me up but his taste is not great.” Sons of his coworkers did not an interesting date make, Kamala learned quickly.

[marvelouskamala]

@thcmystique

Hope Yards and Development Association was just plain sketchy. Kamala could feel it. Abu always said to trust her gut. The Internet insisted your own intuition was hardly ever wrong. She was inclined to believe it, and thus scurried back to Jersey City to do get her feet on the ground and start some hardboiled, gumshoe investigating.

Just as Kamala was congratulating herself for making her way onto the premises undetected, a sliver of movement caught her eye. Someone was changing, shapeshifting just like she was. Stealthy and quick, Kamala joined the person at the fence.

Who were they? A femme fatale? A dirty cop? Another superhero, overdosed on airport detective novels?

“You’re trespassing...you,” she greeted, pointing at the other shapeshifter as imperiously as she dared. Ms. Marvel could do it (Kamala couldn’t). “What’s your business here?”

[marvelouskamala]

ofelements:

After escorting the inhumans Crystal rescued to safety, she immediately headed back out on the streets. Skrulls had certainly escaped their front line, enemies always flitted through the cracks, and New York was in a panic. With her people situated safely in Medusa’s care, it was her job to defend them, and Crystal only skirted duties occasionally when it didn’t matter!

A couple blocks away from the Hudson, she heard commotion and immediately jogged over. Kamala was in the middle of a fight, outnumbered, but definitely not outmatched (she hoped). “Tagging in,” she confirmed with a grin. “Stand back!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she crumbled a rock behind the men, trapping two of them beneath rubble. “That should even the odds a bit, what do you think?”

Tagging in! That was music to Kamala’s ears. She watched Crystal make it rain rocks, impressed and not bothering to hide it.

“You bet!” She returned her attention to the last three guys, who—she had to admit—were being brave and sticking around. Kamala swiped a rock and threw it, just to scare them. “Fancy seeing you around here,” she said to Crystal, dodging a punch and tossing a few of her own. With her fists as big as street signs and an old friend at her six, it was a losing battle for the trio. “Thanks for the help, by the way!” She hadn’t seen Crystal in awhile.

[marvelouskamala]

abugsuit:

Jaime appreciated the encouragement. It was easy for him to get bogged down in the day-to-day of dealing with the Scarab and not keep track of how much progress it had made. “

Kamala was right, learning was a good sign. “Like, I think it’s starting to understand emotions, which is cool. I hoping that’ll help ease off the homicidal urges.”

"What kind of emotions?” Kamala asked, eagerly. Jaime’s condition was one in a million, by her guess, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get control of the Scarab and his life, just as Kamala had. She’d gotten through Terrigenesis and came out the other side. She was in college now! Juggling a life and being a hero. It was possible. Hearing that the Scarab was assimilating to Jaime was great news.  “Does it like anything? The Scarab would really be happy if you showed it Star Wars, I think. As long as it doesn’t...uh, identify with Darth Vader, you should be golden!”

[marvelouskamala]

@ofelements

Skrulls out, uproar in. Kamala winced, catching a little girl before she got squashed by a car.

“No problem!” Kamala squeaked as the little girl’s mother hugged the living daylights out of Kamala, thanking her profusely. The streets were practically buzzing. The Skrulls were gone, she knew, but they didn’t take all the crime with them. Aliens were the quickest way to get New Yorkers into a panic. Before, during, and after an invasion was a rollercoaster that superheroes just could not get off. 

The night wound down with a little five-on-one fight near the Hudson. Luckily, a familiar face showed up right when things got dicey.

“Crystal!” The name jumped out of Kamala’s mouth faster than a Flash. “Hi!” Kamala let herself get a lot shorter, narrowly avoiding a whack to the face with a rebar. “Tagging in?”

[marvelouskamala]

abugsuit:

“Nah, amigo. Me and Scarab are doin’ great. Like, he told me to eliminate the TA from my coding class and I talked him out of it! That’s progress, right?”

“Definitely,” Kamala insisted. Jaime’s scarab...thing gave Kamala the creeps. 

It was like having a cranky Emperor Palpatine at the back of your brain at all times. Kamala was happy to stretch like an accordion and shapeshift into stuff if it meant avoiding carrying the closest equivalent to a conscience that sounded more like Ultron than Jiminy Cricket with her. “It’s learning! I totally think that’s doing great.” Progress was better than regress.

[marvelouskamala]

mistresscfmagnetism:

Lorna snorted at the phrase, brows raised curiously. “That’s a new one,” she  teased lightly, shaking her head. It was hard to hold the weird analogy over Kamala’s head when she was smiling like that, though. “I’m all right. The holidays were nice.” It was her first holiday season in New York and, by extension, her first  experience with it all since becoming estranged from her foster parents. It was… different, to say the least. “New York knows how to keep people busy around this time of year, huh?”

Crap, caught. Kamala jumped into the next conversational break at the first chance. “Awesome,” she said, probably not very subtle. Getting flustered was not a good look on her. “It is the city that never sleeps,” she remarked, giving the park around them another glance. Good thing for the criminals, bad thing for all the superheroes like her and Lorna. “All of us keep all the lights on.” Kept the world spinning, too, not that many people cared for that.

[marvelouskamala]

spidcrgwens: 

Gwen beamed at Kamala’s reply, draping the shirt over the side of the buggy she’d been trailing along behind her with a pleased hum. There weren’t a ton of  outfits there – Gwen wasn’t exactly rolling in cash, after all – but she had gathered a pretty fair amount. Glancing up at Kamala’s question, she shrugged. “My wardrobe’s a little lacking,” she admitted, wrinkling her nose lightly. 

Gwen’s wardrobe was gonna rock when this was over. Kamala was a little jealous.

"That’s it?” She asked, sidling Gwen her most innocent smile. That would prompt a full confession, wouldn’t it? “No new...significant other to impress?” Kamala prodded, sidestepping a grumbling elderly couple before she smacked into them and rebounded back like an elastic band. “Nobody I gotta crush under my...” She whispered the next word. Better safe than sorry, with her powers. “Embiggened foot if they’ve been mean?”

[marvelouskamala]

unsafestars:

How did one respond to that? She gave the dog another appraising look, quite positive that dog was not actually the right descriptor. “So…you what, have him eat the things you do not want to burden yourself with? Has he eaten many grenades? Bombs? Supervillain wannabes?”

There were no idols or role models to be found in Elektra’s field. Other assassins, they were little more than competition. In this way, they forced her to be better, but she would prefer a world without them. She couldn’t understand the way people venerated superheroes, especially not when they took it to such extreme measures as becoming one for themselves. “I’m sure you realize that your description is apt for any number of heroes in this city. Starting out as an apprentice is nothing to be ashamed of, as long as you know when it is time to make your own name for yourself.”

"No!” Either Kamala was speaking a foreign language, or the woman was twisting all of her words around. Come to think of it, Kamala missed that. She was spinning stuff and putting words in Kamala’s mouth. “I’d never give him a bomb! That’s crazy. It’s just...he chomped on the Doombot and I couldn’t stop him and then he just started eating stuff when he was protecting me, or he...or when he’s nervous. I only give him scraps.” Table scraps were Lockjaw’s favorite.

“Someday,” was all Kamala could say. Divorcing herself from the Ms. Marvel legacy sounded unbearable. There wasn’t anything else she wanted to be, at least not right now. “I don’t feel as...independent as I could be,” she admitted, grudgingly. Saving the day alone was fine, but spelling out a new path was about as easy as maintaining a change into a new person, like she did as Carol. “I could, eventually. It’s just...good the way it is, you know?”

[marvelouskamala]

captaintrevcr:

He didn’t have enough information to answer that question. Nothing was wrong with it, really, it functioned well enough as clothing and good thing he had died with his coat on. That said, he had no idea where the rest of his wardrobe was. Steve assumed all of his possessions were long gone, which only left him with one option. “You don’t think I look…out of place?” Glancing around the busy street, he noticed a few people who he thought stuck out more than him, but maybe they were the ones nobody looked at twice. “Thank you, but my wardrobe is lacking.” There were other matters to attend to – many of them, certainly more pressing than acquiring new outfits, but he couldn’t help it. Wanting to blend in and fly under the radar was what he was trained to do. “The club…” He repeated slowly before nodding with mock confidence. “That will do. I’ll just, uh.” Steve paused, opening his wallet to look again at how much money he had. “Do you think this is enough?” He flashed the contents at her from a short distance, close enough for her to see the bills but far enough for him to react if she turned out to be a thief. Steve hardly cared if he could afford to shop at this particular store, but he wanted to see if his money was still good in this new world.

"Not really,” Kamala pointed out. “Maybe in Jersey, where I live, but we’re in New York City. We have aliens, and Captain Marvel...Hulks.” Carol’s uniform was awesome, but a lot of place on a busy street. This guy was actually pretty normal. “Yours is okay, in my opinion.”

Kamala peered down at the bills, curious. The weirdness radar was pinging, but she kept the rest of her opinions about the guy to herself. “Not really,” she admitted. It looked like only thirty bucks. “You might want to try the store down that way,” she said, directing his attention in the right direction. “It’s cheaper, but they have a lot of casual stuff that you might like.”

[marvelouskamala]

mistresscfmagnetism:

Kamala seemed enthusiastic about this, and Lorna decided she liked it. It was nice when someone was passionate about something, even nicer when that thing was something as fun and harmless as movie arrangements. “Well, I won’t question your expertise, then!” She laughed at Kamala’s  joke, nodding her head. “I guess I’ve got a lot riding on this movie, then. I’d better be on my best behavior, huh?”

“The cream of the crop...behavior,” Kamala insisted, finishing that awkward, cringe worthy analogy with her most winning smile. Usually, her smiles defused situations pretty quick. “How are you, besides all the babysitting?” Lorna was a cool friend, but still something of a mystery. Kamala wanted to learn more, if she could. “Did you enjoy the holiday season?”

[marvelouskamala]

the-m3chanic:

Honesty was the best policy. Tony thought he had learnt that long ago, back in 2008 probably, when he stood up in front of the reporters and realised that admitting he was Iron Man was preferable to continuing to live the life he had been, where the most philanthropic thing he did was give money to charity under his mother’s name. Keeping secrets from his team was something that he had admittedly indulged in, but he was doing better now. Ultron had been many things, and a learning moment was definitely among them.

There had bene some pretty weird sights in his time as an Avenger, but watching Kamala morph into a nearly perfect (no, it was perfect now, she shifted the little details) version of himself was definitely up there. “That is amazing,” he said, which was a better description than uncanny, that was for damn sure. “Wow, that nose bump really is impressive.” Tony could thank Tiberius for that, and a couple of overzealous heavy-hitters that they’d faced off against. At least a broken nose gave him character. “Wait, so you could go to like meetings and things like that?” he asked. Of course he would never take advantage of the kid that way, but he couldn’t deny the potential that she had to infiltrate anyone’s life and keep them out of trouble. Hell, he might even send Kamala to give Pepper the long overdue quarterly reports – she would probably be better at approaching her than he would. He always seemed to choke on his words. “You change your voice, too?” The possibilities were endless, honestly, and it made sense now how she had kept her identity a secret for so long. Thank God she was on their side, that was all he had to say.

“Of course, Miss Khan,” FRIDAY’s voice echoed from the workshop. She was always so polite with Kamala, just like she was with Pepper, Natasha or Clint – Tony supposed spending twenty-four-seven with him prompted some sarcasm even in his artificial intelligence. “The only people I mess with are Reed and Clint,” Tony told her. “Maybe Rhodes, sometimes, but he has too much blackmail material on me to push it too far. You think your folks would mind?”

Tony Stark just called Kamala amazing. She needed someone to pinch her, stat.

“Meetings?” That sounded like a lot of responsibility. “I could do that. Look at me, I’m a reasonable adult. Let’s talk...quarterly reports, and stock options.” Kamala was pulling all these terms out of her one economics class textbook, but maybe the board would believe it for a minute! “This fiscal policy is...negative,” she ventured, smiling. It would’ve sounded much better in Tony’s voice, but she could practice. “Good, right? I just walk in as you and it’s made in the shade.”

“Voices, weight, clothes...everything. I got out of Terrigenesis looking like Carol,” Kamala explained. “It’s harder to do than stretching, but I’m getting better.”

Holy smokes, FRIDAY was the real MVP. Kamala had to find a way to do something nice for her. Could you make an AI happy? Something to consider. “They wouldn’t mind. You might mind if Ammi asks you a thousand questions, though. There’s your warning ahead of time. Abu will just wanna talk business, Tyesha might update you on the baby...Aamir...I don’t know about him. The food’s great, though, because Ammi knows her way around a kitchen. Miles and Gwen visit all the time!”

[marvelouskamala]

mistresscfmagnetism:

Maybe if Lorna had grown up more in touch with her mutant heritage, like many of the people living at Xavier’s, she would better understand the animosity between mutants and inhumans. As it was, she didn’t understand it  at all. It seemed to her it’d be better for the two groups to stick together, to look out for one another against humans who wanted them all gone, but there was no convincing the mutant community of that.

“I’m there,” she responded with a smile. “You sure do make your movie dates in advance, don’t you? What if you don’t like me that many months from now?” Her voice was light and teasing. Kamala wasn’t the sort to abandon a friend, after all.

"Yeah!” Kamala enthused. That way, Kamala anticipated what would be the best showings and planned all the snacks she was going to sneak in her purse ahead of time. (Ten bucks for a bag of gummy worms? Yeah, right!) “Trust me, I’m an expert.” Seeing the hype and fandom around new movies come out of the blue was the best thing ever. “I’ll keep you around at least until we see the movie. Then,” she joked, “we’ll see.” Kamala disliking Lorna Dane? Try another Earth.

[marvelouskamala]

spidcrgwens:

@marvelouskamala

With all the craziness going on in the city, it was nice to relax every now and then. Gwen wasn’t usually much of a shopper, but when most of your clothes were in an alternate universe and you’d just ripped a lot of your limited wardrobe during an unexpected bout of extra-strong superstrength, it  sort of became a necessary evil. It was a lot better with a friend, of course.

Holding a shirt against her torso, she turned to Kamala with an inquisitive look. “What do you think? Yes or no? I’m not crazy about the color…”

When the invite to go shopping popped up on her cell, Kamala was sort of in the middle of something. White Rabbit, probably upset she couldn’t make any real friends or be taken seriously, held up one of Jersey City’s shopping malls for a couple hours. Kamala had to go as big as a tree and shake her like a rag doll to get her to stop. Just after ten o’clock, Dodson was off to jail and Kamala was on her way to meet up with Gwen.

“Yes,” Kamala said, emphatically. “It looks great. What’s the occasion, by anyway?”